Rick Klau

Co-founder and CEO

2022 - Current

Raised $3M from VC firms Union Labs, Third Sphere, K9 Ventures, Cleo Capital, Incite, and John Doerr to build a consumer-facing climate tech company focused on home electrification.

Board Member

2019

Chief Technology Innovation Officer

2021 - 2022

Appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to lead the Office of Enterprise Technology (now known as the Office of Digital Services) at CDT. - Lead member of the state’s COVID-19 data strike team. Helped lift California’s vaccine administration from bottom 20% to top 20% nationally in four months. Successfully lobbied White House and CDC to modify vaccine allocation formula based on data analysis. - Designed and launched California’s Digital Vaccine Record, the country’s largest issuer of digital COVID-19 vaccination records: 20M+ records delivered to 8M+ California residents in first year; our open-source code is now in production in four U.S. states. Invited to join the steering committee of VCI to grow availability of SMART Health Cards worldwide. - Doubled team in first year. Reduced time-to-hire by 75% and vacancy rate from >30% to <10% in one quarter. - Launched partnership with WPVIP to scale state’s web publishing efforts, and launched a first-of-its-kind design system. - Deployed Digital ID system based on federal login.gov service to streamline online authentication for resident state-wide.

Senior Operating Partner, Google Ventures

2019 - 2020

I led GV's Partnerships team, a BD/corpdev practice designed to connect our portfolio companies to the C-suite at Fortune 500 companies, large government agencies, and NGOs. Our team generated hundreds of millions of dollars in commercial opportunities for our portfolio, made introductions that led directly to strategic investments and acquisitions, and regularly helped the portfolio navigate the broader Alphabet ecosystem.

Partner, Google Ventures

2011 - 2019

I joined GV after 4 years at Google, the last three of which were spent as a product manager on Blogger, Google+ and YouTube. Built out the Startup Lab, GV's collection of workshops and mentorship for portfolio employees attended by thousands of startup employees. Deployed Salesforce to track the growing network of people and companies core to GV's growth, and launched a private online community for portfolio companies to share resources.

Product Manager

2008 - 2011

PM, YouTube Homepage, Accounts, Social: Served as YouTube's privacy lead as part of a Google-wide privacy working group, and led YouTube's integrations with Google+ and Google Accounts. PM, Google Profiles: Led the redesign of Google Profiles (launched to the public in March, 2011), part of core product team on the project that became Google+. PM, Blogger: Responsible for legal, business development, revenue generation, communications and product development at the world's largest blogging platform and 8th largest web property worldwide. Grew revenue, users, and usage by significant percentages. Worked with Google's policy team to represent Google to federal elected officials on issues from copyright to fair use, and led negotiations on a major partnership with Amazon's affiliate program.

Strategic Partner Development Manager

2007 - 2008

(Joined Google as a result of Google's acquisition of FeedBurner.) Business Development lead, Google Scholar: 10/07 - 11/09. Handled contract negotiations to acquire 80+ years of US federal caselaw and 50+ years of state caselaw, which formed foundation of the legal opinions included in Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). Content Lead, Google Product Search: 7/08 - 12/08. Managed a team responsible for acquiring product and merchant listings in all countries where Product Search was launched, and work with product team to identify additional content for inclusion in Product Search. I identified strategic partners, negotiated terms and managed contract execution. Product Strategy, Google Elections Team. 2008. Coordinated product strategy across all Google products included in Google's partnership with the Democratic National Convention Committee.

VP, Publisher Services

2005 - 2007

Joined the company immediately following B round of funding to head up business development focused on publisher recruitment. Successfully negotiated partnerships with leading publishers, including IDG, Ziff Davis, Business Week, Mansueto Ventures Publications (Fast Company and Inc. Magazine), Wired, Tribune Media, Hearst, and dozens of others. I served as one of the company's spokespersons, and frequently spoke at industry conferences about emerging trends in content syndication and publishing industry business models. RSS feeds under management grew from 45,000 to more than 350,000 during my tenure, and subscribers to all feeds grew from 500k to more than 21m in that same time.

VP, Business Development

2004 - 2005

Socialtext was the first enterprise social software company. We delivered lightweight web-native collaboration technology (popularly known as a wiki) that enabled small groups up to entire corporate divisions to collaborate more effectively. I reported to the CEO, and was responsible for direct sales, channel sales, and development partners. Revenues grew four consecutive quarters, we developed relationships with nearly 2 dozen Fortune 500 enterprises, and the company successfully closed a B round of funding during my tenure.

Vice President, Vertical Markets

2001 - 2004

The role was a combination of marketing, sales, and product management. Served as corporate spokesperson for media and analysts. Spoke at more than a dozen national and international conferences focused on the professional services markets, speaking on topics ranging from CRM to Knowledge Management, operational technology to eliminating cultural barriers to technology adoption. Assisted sales team with strategic accounts, and was directly involved in the three largest deals in the company's history. Participated in three international media road shows, resulting in over 10 articles in Tier 1 publications focused on our company and/or product. Asssisted in launch strategy of company's first major release in 2.5 years. Developed senior relationships with key industry influencers (legal, accounting, financial services, consulting). Revenues grew more than 50%, and new vertical markets outside of our original core market grew to nearly half of all new business.

Director, Industry Marketing

1999 - 2001

Coordinated iManage's efforts in the sales, channel, marketing and product development departments for the legal market. Grew market share 50%, generating a 75% increase in revenues in twelve months. Engaged and/or managed strategic partnerships with Xerox, Cisco, Microsoft, Adobe and others. Arranged for press coverage in Wall Street Journal as well as numerous trade publications, resulting in a 400% increase in press coverage year to year. Represented company on CNBC in televised interview, and in numerous press interviews (print and radio). Organized and ran the company's first electronic marketing campaigns (online advertising, web seminars, and e-mail newsletters), which resulted in an average of a 500% rise in response rates to marketing campaigns.

VP, Marketing & Development

1997 - 1999

Formalized TrialNet's marketing efforts and shared sales duties with the President of the company. Presented with CEO to investors interested in acquiring the company. Created first ad campaign, redesigned corporate web site, began regular PR program. Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale declared TrialNet "one of the five most significant Internet-related advancements affecting the nation's legal community." Organized first user conference, a profitable three day conference with over 200 attendees. Part of design team that managed the first major overhaul of the system, including major functional improvements (encrypted e-mail, new UI).